Did ESPN Forget that Mississippi State beat UConn in the Final Four Last Season?
By Ethan Lee
The Worldwide Leader in Sports Needs More Accurate Graphics
Last season, Mississippi State shocked the world and upended UConn. In doing so, the Bulldogs pulled off one of the biggest upsets in all of sports history and ended a 111 game winning streak. This all happened in overtime on a buzzer beater, the perfect ending to one of the greatest upsets ever.
And somehow, ESPN forgot that when they were making this graphic.
While ESPN was doing pre-NCAA Tournament coverage, they were discussing some of the juggernauts and title favorites. Of course, UConn was mentioned in this segment. They absolutely should be mentioned. They’re undefeated and look to continue winning.
During this segment and discussion, it was actually discussed about how Mississippi State took the mighty UConn team down. Rebecca Lobo brought up how UConn, as a team, was expecting to slip up somewhere along the way and exceeded their expectations until they came across the Bulldogs.
Mississippi State women’s basketball thwarted UConn and won 66-64 in overtime. We all know that by now. But somehow, the folks making ESPN’s graphics didn’t get that memo. You can check out the graphic below.
This is an upset and a moment that was worthy of an ESPY. Yes, ESPN recognized Mississippi State’s victory over UConn with the ESPY for the best upset. The same media outlet that awarded Mississippi State for this moment of greatness also slipped up and forgot that this moment happened.
I get that this is a relatively minor mistake, but it’s certainly a frustrating one.
Not an isolated incident
This comes after ESPN discussed Mississippi State and Michigan in a bowl game that would never happen prior to the Bulldogs dismantling Louisville this past bowl season. This was back in December.
A little over a year ago, ESPN’s graphics department confused Mississippi State’s men’s basketball team with that of Texas A&M. This came as the men’s team was taking on the No. 19 South Carolina Gamecocks in February.
ESPN has even confused the Mississippi State University Bulldogs for the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils. That happened this year. Literally less than two months ago.
It’s frustrating. It gets old. And I’m sure there’s at least a half dozen more of these sort of mistakes out there. I get that mistakes happen and that ESPN’s workers are moving around the clock, doing work that requires a ton of effort. But these mistakes shouldn’t happen so frequently. And they shouldn’t happen to a team that made history just a year ago. Come on, ESPN.